Found on the planet Manress, and used by the Stokhli nomads, the spray sticks gained a fearsome reputation during the reign of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
On Manress, the sticks are used for big-game hunting, and one stick carries enough stun charge to bring down a gundark. Weighing only four kilograms, the thin metre-long metal tubes are perfect for hunting large wild animals, especially as they have a very good range. When fired, a thin translucent mist sprays out of the nozzle at high speed, and turns into a liquid as soon as it touches cool air. As the liquid cools even further, it becomes a solid net of cylindrical shape. Once upon the enemy, the net wraps itself around the target and delivers it a stun charge. This incapacitates the target, rendering it too weal to break free of the net. Although even without the stun, breaking free of the net is extremely difficult, and only the strongest of people can perform such a feat. If the target is still conscious and prepared to put up a fight, some sticks are fitted with a stun pad, to deliver the final blow.
An optimum range of one hundred metres, and a maximum one of two hundred, makes these elegant weapons very deadly in skilled hands. The mist is resistant to virtually all solvents, and vibroblades. The Stokhli people, who exclusively manufacture the mist solution, made sure that their weapon was almost unbeatable. However, like most manufactured solutions, the net does decay after several hours. Whilst in flight, even a lightsabre is nearly useless against the net. This is because the net changes its shape in mid-air until it hits its target. Standard spray sticks have ten net cartridges, with each cartridge containing five hundred metres of net.
When fired, not all five hundred metres is necessarily released. Simple controls on each stick allow the wielder to alter the length of spray, the width of the net, and the strength of the stun charge. The thumb trigger can be slid to set the range finder, which controls how quickly the net forms itself. The length of spray is determined by how long the trigger is depressed.
At fourteen thousand credits a piece, stokhli spray sticks are by no means cheap. Off Manress, they are almost impossible to find, since they are not a well-known weapon. Under Thrawn, they were put to a new use. The Noghri used the sticks to kidnap Leia and Han, and even used them on Luke. If it had not been for Chewie in the Falcon, they would probably have succeeded.